“Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Luke 15:3-7 NIV
A few of us have been away at a conference this week, during the worship time today we sung out the lyrics “you’re the one who never leaves the one behind”. I’ve listened to that song hundreds of times and I’ve sung it out in church during worship so many times but today God pulled at something in my heart.
Earlier on in the week one of the hosts talked about this passage of scripture:
“Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John 5:19 NIV
It’s really hit me today that I’m God’s son, and I should be doing what he is doing. God doesn’t leave the one behind and neither should I. For a long time I have had friends and family that have rejected Jesus and I’ve realised that I’ve stopped talking to them about Him and I’ve kind of left it all up to God. Today I realised that if I really love them like the Shepherd loves His sheep then I should be running after them. Not in a strange way where I’m Bible bashing them but in a loving way, where I live alongside them, I show them God’s love through me and then when the day comes that they are found and come home to the flock I can rejoice with the Shepherd and everyone else.
I pray that we wouldn’t leave the one behind, that we would seek to find them no matter what and that our heart would be in line with God’s!